The present invention relates to a panel coating system wherein the whole process from cleaning to emulsion filming of panels of color pictures tubes is automated.
In general, the manufacturing process of a color picture tube requires a plurality of coating steps for forming a black matrix film, phosphor screen and acryl coat on the inner surface of the panel and a plurality of exposing steps for exposing the panels formed with films, with the panels being installed with shadow masks. There has been developed an automatic coating line wherein a plurality of coating stations and a plurality of exposing stations are arranged in a given sequence along a panel conveying line as a system of automating the manufacturing process of color picture tubes. In the automatic coating line described above, in case a trouble is caused to any one of the stations during operation, then either the whole system of the coating line or stations upstream of the station having the trouble should be put out of operation, thereby decreasing the operating efficiency of the coating line. In addition, if either part or the whole of the coating line fails in operation, then the film quality of the panels on the line which failed will be deteriorated, and moreover failure in forming of normal films will be resulted. Furthermore, in the automatic coating line described, such a long period of time as scores of minutes is required for a process from supplying a panel to the starting point of the conveying line to arrival of the panel to the end of the conveying line after passing through stations, and hence, portions of the line take place, which do not contribute to the production at the times of start and end of operation, thus substantially decreasing the operating efficiency of the system.